


I might just Disappear

by orphan_account



Category: Ghost - Mystery Skulls (Music Video), Mystery Skulls (Band)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-02-28 08:06:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2724926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is how it ends. It ends in a forest where the trees rattle and the animals appear at the wrong moments. It ends with a severed arm and a manic laugh. It ends with blood and the screeches of sirens and the smell of burning wood. The villain is caught but the price is too high.</p><p>It ends too soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's alright if I'm with friends

**Author's Note:**

> "And I'm feeling like a ghost  
> it doesn't matter."

This is how it ends. It ends in a forest where the trees rattle and the animals appear at the wrong moments. It ends with a severed arm and a manic laugh. It ends with blood and the screeches of sirens and the smell of burning wood. The villain is caught but the price is too high.

It ends too soon.

When Arthur wakes up he's unbalanced physically and emotionally. He's in a hospital gown, the smell of antiseptics drowning his nose and the polite noise of the dead and dying in his ears. He's in a single room in a single bed with the light too bright. He's disoriented, goes to sit up and doesn't realize his left arm is missing until his face is full of white pillow. Nurses come by, a doctor checks his eyes with a flashlight and asks little questions in a soothing voice but all he can think about is his arm.

_An old man with grubby fingers wielding an axe._

Vivi and Lewis come by and Vivi cries fat tears that roll down her puffy cheeks. "It's my fault. If I hadn't pushed you into this." She drops to her knees beside his bed and pleas like prayers. "If only we had been more careful-" Ifs and Ifs and apologies between those ifs but it's a little late for that, he does not say. " _I'm so sorry."_

Arthur does not have the to courage to comfort, does not have the peace of mind required to deny. They all know it's true. They all know Arthur's the scaredy cat and they all knew it was dangerous and a bad idea but Vivi talked with those excited eyes. It's not exactly her fault either; they heard that the forest was haunted, not occupied by a serial killer.

_He grins and his teeth are a rotting yellow, his attire a camouflage green. There was a madness in his eyes as he swung with his axe. A madness in bright green eyes._

But it's okay because Lewis comforts her with a, "I don't think Arthur's much up for talking Vivi. Let's come back later okay?" A hand on her back and a shoulder grown accustomed to tears.

They exit pausing only to look back at him with sad eyes, guilt and empathy. He doesn't move when they leave. He doesn't move for most of the night. He doesn't even move when his parents come to yell at him for his stupidity and cry for his misfortune.

" _It's just you and me boy." The woodsman said, backing him into the trunk of a particularly thick tree. "Screaming isn't going to save you now." His smile is deranged and his skin looks sallow in the pale moon light. He's insane._

He's outfitted with a wooden prosthetic shortly after he claws at his bandages until the stump was for all to see. It looks like a clean-cut. Arthur knows it's not. The prosthetic has plastic coverings that will make it look more human. As human as plastic can replicate but it weighs all wrong and smells like puke (or it might just be him). He undergoes physical therapy to adjust, talks to therapists once a week, takes a few pills to counteract the depression that inevitably overcomes him.

He doesn't talk. Not to his parents who yell and cry in equal measure. Not to Vivi and Lewis who visits daily. He doesn't talk until a week and a half later when his parents have stopped trying to wheedle answers and started leaving little gifts like he needed to be bribed out of his misery.

"Where's Mystery?" He asks.

"They don't allow pets in the hospital." Lewis says, "He's been hanging at my house. He really wants you to get better."

Arthur hums and doesn't respond to their gentle invitations to talk. They leave while he rubs at the plastic that used to be his left arm. Phantom pains are a bitch.

" _Come on it'll be fun Arthur!"_

_Mystery barks. They're parked outside of the haunted forest, the newly painted Mystery Skulls van sitting enticingly on the road to anywhere but here. He looks forlornly at it, edges his way back to its safety but Vivi tugs stubbornly at his arm._

_Lewis pats him on the back, "Come on Arthur, it's only_ rumored  _to be haunted. We'll probably walk around for a few hours and head home when nothing shows up."_

" _Right." Arthur says, taking the flashlight Vivi hands him and smiles, "You're right, nothing to be afraid of."_

 _Pain. Blood. So much blood. Arthur screams as the axe embeds itself in his arm. It does not go all the way through, stopping midway and chopping at his nerves. Instead the crazy murderer puts his foot to Arthur's pelvis and_ tugs  _the axe out. Swinging again, and again until the arm is lying on the floor still twitching like he still had control._

_Arthur screams but it's more of a cough, a warm liquid dribbling from his mouth. His vision is blurry and his ears aren't working right but he can tell through his mess of tears that the man is aiming for his right arm now. And then he will aim for his legs and then, finally, his head._

_Arthur closes his eyes, so tight that the tears can't escape. Not like this._

_Not like this._

Arthur's eyes shoot open and he swings wildly with his right hand. He preferred the railings down when he slept, not liking the feeling of being trapped and so he's unobstructed as he falls on the floor, the blankets wrapping around his feet.

He expects two hands to come up to his face, to cover his eyes that flash with nightmares. He expects two arms to hug himself with. He expects two arms to help balance himself back onto the bed. He doesn't have two arms. He doesn't have two arms and so he lies on the cold floor, his legs wrapped in blanket and crying his little heart out.

" _It's just you and me now boy. Screaming isn't going to save you now."_

The nurse finds him passed out on the floor and when Lewis asks, "What have you been up to?" like he does every day, Arthur says nothing like he does every day.


	2. Chapter 2

He's released into his parent's care a month later. The doctors wanted to take a closer look, it's a miracle he's survived the encounter, they say. His parents won't have any of it. They baby him and take off work and it just makes him feel guilty because he's an  _adult goddamnit_. He was in college but he dropped out just to join Vivi and Lewis and Mystery and now he's  _here._

Lewis and Vivi come over once to drop Mystery off. They don't come back because his mother screams at them with tears in her eyes, " _This is your fault our boy is like this,"_  while his father says things like, "Didn't those kids do enough damage?" next to him. He hears the guilt in Vivi's voice, he hears Lewis' apologies floating through the doorway but he does not move. When he hears the van's door closing, the familiar rusty engine getting quieter he asks to be alone.

His father smiles and reassures him that he'd just be a call away. Mystery pads in and licks at his face and he absent-mindedly pets the dog as it curls in his lap.

Thirty minute later when his parents are arguing over him again he receives a text.

"We're sorry." It's from Lewis. He could still hear him talking to his mom, soft apologies in the face of a woman surrounded by grief.

Arthur doesn't reply until midnight the next day, after Lewis and Vivi tried to visit him again and his parents denied entry with hurtful accusations. (He does not move to greet them or defend them, tries to fall asleep with a pillow over his head. It does not work because his mother slams the door so hard Mystery whimpers next to him).

"It's fine." He texts over and over, in varying lengths, backspacing and accidentally dropping his phone. Even typing one-handed is hard for him. He can't imagine a future of dropping stuff and asking his parents for help. Dragging them down, making them help him.

He settles on "It's fine." while systematically pinching and petting at Mystery's fur.

He receives a message from both Lewis and Vivi at differing times within the hour.

"I'm glad you're okay Arthur." Lewis texts five minutes later even though the crickets are out and Lewis is no doubt tired from his shift at his parent's restaurant.

"I'm sorry. My parents don't want to visit anymore. I'll ditch them though." Vivi texts almost instantaneously. The little ellipses pops up, signifying she's still typing. Arthur waits patiently but after five minutes the thing disappears. Arthur waits ten minutes more just in case and it flickers on the screen but he doesn't receive a text for the rest of the night.

For the next few weeks Arthur answers some texts and in the same consecutive week ignores every voicemail and text only to go back to responding. He's gotten a little better with walking, with holding out his right hand and gripping. Vivi and Lewis in light of not being able to visit text him religiously despite whether he answers or not.

"My parents won't let me see Vivi." Lewis texts around the time Arthur learns how to shower by himself. "They've tried to take my phone away but I'm an adult and I pay my own phone bills."

"Mom and Dad are thinking of taking me to a therapist." Vivi says over the phone even though Arthur doesn't prompt anything or respond in any way. "They say my love for supernatural is unnatural and dangerous." Her voice goes quiet in the end and it's clear that she wants reassurance. That if he said so she'd go. Not of wanting to change but from misguided perceptions so unlike the girl he knew from before whose confidence blinded him.

"Don't let them change you." Arthur says, his voice rusty and then hangs up to bury his tears in Mystery's fur. He's long since gone over any bitterness about the incident. It was a dumb idea to go out in the forest at dark but it was collectively all and none of their faults. Yet he still couldn't seem to grasp the phone and call for them like he used to.

When he goes to sleep that night he hears a brief whisper, an, "I'm sorry." When he wakes up he concludes it was nothing but his imagination.

One day he takes apart the plastic covering of his prosthetic and sets the wooden arm underneath on fire. He doesn't know why he does it. A flurry emotions, fury and anger at his state, not wanting to feel the polished wood against his side. Either way his parents have finally trusted him alone and he sets his wooden prosthetic on fire in the backyard while Mystery barks and bites at his pajama pants to make him stop.

He just kneels down and pats his dog's head. "It's fine Mystery. It's not like I'm missing anything important."

He laughs because if only the dog knew human language. Mystery looks at him with sad puppy dog eyes anyway and follows him as he goes to his dad's tool shed. His dad has no welding tools but he does have nuts and bolts and Arthur is oddly determined. Mystery looks concerned but can retrieve a tool with surprisingly accuracy. It's hard with one hand but Mystery is a good assistant.

By the time he's finished he can hear his mother calling frantically for him. The arm is just bare machinery and hard to put on himself but it's more comfortable than what the hospital gave him. It's not the right weight and the gears dig in his side but it's proof. He's not useless. He can still do something even if it's as simple as rigging a clockwork system so when he turns a dial on his elbow his arm lifts creating ninety degrees, the locked hand able to carry things. Unlock doors, wave. Normal things he didn't know he'd miss so terribly.

His mom looks at him and the monstrosity; rusted metal and scraps cobbled together and hugs him.

"Arthur. Oh Arthur." She cries, he can't feel it on his metal arm but he can turn the dial a little, hug her with  _two_  arms. It takes some time, the cogs rub against each other, creaking and it's not as nearly smooth as he wants but she's proud. He can tell as she tries to squeeze the living life out of him after months of careful maneuvering.

She convinces Dad to let him around Kingsmen Mechanics again. Uncle Lance welcomes him back with open if not cautious arms and even lifts the ban on Mystery after the tire incident. They let him order whatever spare parts he needs and he works for hours in the workshop, Uncle Lance hovering above his shoulder with helpful advice and food. Uncle Lance who couldn't cook for shit but had all the local delivery restaurants numbers memorized. It wasn't the most perfect system, sometimes he spent too much time in the workshop, too many sleepless nights but it was something he could do. It was as good as therapy as he was going to get.

" _I can call Vivi and Lewis. I can tell them to meet me here._ " Arthur thinks a week after he's been turning spare parts in his Uncle's garage. He doesn't know if Uncle Lance is aware of the restriction's his parents put on his two best friends but if he does know he doesn't act like it. In fact he's constantly been hinting that Arthur should be calling them more.

He doesn't. He still talks and texts but he does not invite them. Not until weeks later when Uncle Lance stops walking like around like a man in care of a delicate baby in a fire pit and starts yelling at him to keep the racket down when he stays over and works unto midnight. The house is empty and so is the garage next door. He's in his own little designated spot, prosthetic blueprints laid out in front of him and other little side projects he's come to work on for Lance, his phone sitting untouched behind his toolbox with probably a thousand messages from the guys. Its sometime around five in the morning but that hasn't stopped Lewis or Vivi from responding in five minutes or less.

"Do you think I should tell them?" Arthur asks Mystery who sits at his side loyally.

He hasn't mentioned anything about his new self-made prosthetic. As far as they know he still has the one from the hospital even though he's already made and discarded five arms, one of which had a trace amount of nickel that made the left side of his body sickly yellow for days. (Not that his parents knew. He's gotten good at lying. Doesn't even stutter anymore.)

The dog barks. Arthur thinks it sounds suspiciously positive.

He picks up the phone, stares at the home screen for far too long: a younger Arthur, Lewis, Vivi and Mystery all smiling guilelessly in a booth at Pepper Paradiso. It was one of Lewis' younger siblings birthday parties, Arthur's eyes watery because of the spiciness of the birthday cake and Vivi teasing about how weak his tongue was. Lewis behind them was making a silly face with those little cone hats sitting lopsidedly on his head while Mystery licked frosting off his cheek.

Arthur couldn't help but stare at his left arm in the photograph. The smiling oblivious face and his left arm.

Mystery barks at him again and Arthur feels silly. He drops the phone and gets back to work. Mystery barks again but he's too entranced. Uncle Lance pulled a few strings. He's getting a special arm prototype soon but not until he's learned everything there is about neural connectivity. Wouldn't want him to experiment only to mess with the rest of his body.

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. Hope you like, next chapter coming out sometime next week or maybe week after that.


End file.
